Who is the Audience for This Movie?

Fans of strange movies.

What I Liked About This Movie

I always loved reading the one liners movie reviewers wrote for movies when I was younger and always tried to think of my own unique zingers so I feel like summing up my feelings for this movie by saying “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is an inventive effects driven wonder for your eyes”.

Terry Gilliam in his career has delivered moments of pure eye candy this movie however is a 100% visual treat. The easiest way to sum up the style of this movie would be to picture yourself taking a hallucinogen then passing out and slipping into the wildest dream you have ever had. I didn’t want to look away for a second. What keeps it from being too disorienting is the special effects that are purposefully half fake/real looking.

You may or may not know that while in the middle of shooting this movie Heath Ledger died. To cover up this fact when his character enters the dream world beyond the theatre companies magic mirror a different actor plays his character. Every time he enters it’s a total shock who the major actor they got to cover the role is. It happens numerous times and all the actors that stepped up to finish this movie put their all into it.

By the end of the movie its whimsically disorienting world will have drawn you in but its bitter sweet ending will have you thinking about it for days.

What Didn’t Work For Me

At times you can tell the movie was slightly pieced together. It’s no fault of director Terry Gilliam it was unfortunate that Ledger passed away before the movie could be finished because it could have been his strongest role.

Should You Watch This Movie?

If you have read this far you know you should.

My Rating (Out of 13)